Focus On Rice, Noodles & Pulses: 14 August

Focus On: Rice, Noodles & Pulses by Alice Leader (Alice.Leader@thegrocer.co.uk)

Download the synopsis here

Publishing: 14 Aug 2021

Advertising deadline: 30 July 2021

Submissions deadline: 23 July 2021

The story

After many years of growth, the rice & noodles market has finally gone off the boil. Value sales have dipped by 0.1% on volumes up 4.7%, as shoppers have switched to bulk packs and own label in response to Covid and to save the pennies. Which retailers are driving this growth in own label? Which brands have been hit hardest? And what will it take to return the category to growth?

Key themes

Own label: This feature will pay close attention to the factors driving own label’s growth over brands in the category’s biggest sector, pouched rice. Own label pouched rice volumes are up 11.8% versus brands’ 10% decline. Which retailers are behind this? Have they launched new own label lines? How has the split of the fixture between brands and own label changed in the past year? How does these retailers’ approach differ from their rivals?

Retail share: Another key focus will be the big swings we’ve seen in retailers’ market share over the past year. Aldi, Co-op and M&S have all seen big declines. Why? What is driving the much stronger performances of Morrisons, Tesco and Waitrose? How have different retail channels (online, convenience, etc) performed?

Rice: There’s been huge growth in bulk rice sales over the past year, driven by consumers stocking up in response to the uncertainty caused by the pandemic. Which retailers and suppliers have benefitted most from this? Have suppliers had to change formats to accommodate this? Has anyone been left behind by this shift?

Noodles: Noodles are in double digit growth. Why? Which brands and retailers have driven this?

Raw material supply: There have been reports of disruptions to raw material supply driven by political unrest in Myanmar and the impact of the pandemic in India. To what extent is this impacting availability over here in Britain? And how is Brexit impacting imports? What is the outlook moving forward?

Innovation: This feature will explore the latest and most interesting product and format innovations in the market. We will be profiling four interesting new products in a separate panel – please provide product details including rsp, launch date, stockists and a high-res pack shot.

4 x innovations: We will profile four new products or ranges (ideally 2xrice, 2xnoodles and/or a pulses launch) that have ideally not appeared in The Grocer before. We need launch date, rsp, and a hi-res picture of each.